


Tumblr prompt story #1: Fullmetal Alchemist

by MissTinfoilHat



Series: Tumblr Prompts [1]
Category: Fullmetal Alchemist (Anime 2003), Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types
Genre: Brother Feels, Brotherly Angst, Coming Out, Growing Up, Kinda, Mentioned Tringham Brothers, One Shot, Parental Roy Mustang, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-30
Updated: 2019-09-30
Packaged: 2020-11-08 03:50:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,608
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20828933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissTinfoilHat/pseuds/MissTinfoilHat
Summary: anonymous asked:I have a prompt if you like it :) I'd LOVE to read some parental Roy or Havoc where Ed or Al start wondering or already know but struggles with accepting or having people know he's not straight, and him going to the parental figure to talk about it or "subtly" "asking for a friend". I feel like this could work even tho they're not that close, similar to how many ppl choose to come out to s/o they're not that close to first (yk bc if they mind at least it wasn't s/o very close to them to lose)





	Tumblr prompt story #1: Fullmetal Alchemist

****All right! My first request. I’m gonna try to write it- I’ve had some time to think about it now, and I hope it’s what you want! It's a little out of my comfort zone, I haven't really written something like this before, but it was fun to challenge myself.****

**********Sorry if there are some small grammatical mistakes here and there- I might get around to fix them, but it won't be a priority. **  


* * *

  
The door to Colonel Roy Mustang’s office flung open, slamming into the wall behind it, leaving yet another imprint telling any visitor that Edward Elric had been here. 

Roy growled silently, pinching the bridge of his nose while assessing how much the damage would cost to fix once he finally moved his way up the ranks and left this office to the next stringed puppet. 

“Report,” Edward announced obnoxiously, hurling the crumpled paper onto the desk in front of the exasperated man and immediately turned to march back out. Instinctively, Roy reached out and grabbed the red coat that floated in front of him, and was able to drag the brat back.

Edward grunted in annoyance, and crossed his arms defiantly, while Roy picked up the paper to look it over. 

“Fullmetal… Is this _crayon_?” Roy exclaimed in disbelief. 

“What? I didn’t have a pen!” Edward complained in response. 

“But you had a yellow crayon?” 

“I borrowed it from some kid on the train. He said I couldn’t have the red one.”

Roy had no idea how to answer that. Instead, he covered his expression with his hands, dragging them down his face wearily. “I can’t… I can’t send in a report to the Fuhrer, barely legible in yellow crayon, Fullmetal. Even that tiny brain of yours has to understand that.” 

“Hey!” Ed shouted angrily.“That’s what you get for demanding the report the second we’re back in Central, bastard colonel!” 

“How naïve of me to think that you somehow would be able to access a _pen _on a four-day train ride.” 

Edward pouted and blew raspberries at his superior. With mismatching arms still crisscrossed, he turned his face away and pointed his nose towards the ceiling in obstinance. He shot a quick glance towards the door, and Roy realized that he seemed to have a worry knitted in his eyebrows. 

Roy pondered for a moment, suddenly realizing what was missing. 

“Edward, where’s Alphonse?” 

Edward froze up, only seeming to hold his arms tighter. Roy couldn’t help but notice the inner turmoil probably raging inside the fifteen-year-olds brain at his questions. 

Damnit. He didn’t have time for this. 

“Fullmetal, talk to me or I swear I will have you court marshalled for wasting my time.” 

“You can’t do that,” he retorted but didn’t look entirely sure. He did a double-take, watching the exit longingly before groaning loudly and collapsing onto the chair in front of the messy wooden desk. 

Roy didn’t say anything, just folded his hands and waited for the vertically challenged teen to spill. 

“We had a fight,” he finally muttered, defeatedly. 

Roy wanted to roll his eyes. This wasn’t some kind of school counselling office. Talk about wasting his time. He was _not _paid to sit and hear about two young brothers having a quarrel. But then again, if this was any other teens, they probably would be in school, and having this conversation with an actual counseller. He had made damn sure that didn’t happen. 

_God, he hated karma. _

“Go on,” he heard himself say, settling in for a tedious recital consisting of “he said, she said”. 

“I don’t know… He’s just been acting really strange ever since we left Xenotime. I mean, it was a pretty strange mission, but he’s just been really quiet, or irritable and unreasonable when finally speaking, ever since.” 

Roy swiftly glanced across the report for clarification. 

“Ah, yes. Where you met those two brothers that pretended to be you two,” he confirmed. 

“Yeah,” Edward sighed silently. “I don’t know what’s going on with him. He snapped at me when I tried to ask and went straight to the library once we arrived here.” 

Edward looked absolutely beat by this. The sorrow in his golden eyes twinged something in Roy’s heart, and he tried to get rid of the useless pain he felt for his depressed subordinate. But, he already knew that he wasn’t going to be able to concentrate on his work for the rest of the day if he didn’t at least _try _to help.

He exhaled deeply to be overly dramatic. “To be fair, you _are _pretty insufferable,” he murmured with a cheeky grin. Some of the well known Elric-fire could once again be recognized in the kid, as Ed reacted to his words But as quickly as it appeared, it disappeared again. 

“I can try to talk to him if you want?” 

Even Roy was shocked by the words that left his mouth. That was not what he was going to say. He was just kinda trying to lighten the mood with some… _ill-timed jokes. Shit. That karma again. _  
  
“I guess you could try,” Edward sulked, slightly unwilling to admit that he was, in fact, very relieved. If Roy demanded to know what was going on with Al, Alphonse wouldn’t dare to react the same way as he had done with him. 

The small hallway between the offices and library was way too short. Before Roy had even figured out what his opening line would be, he was standing only a few feet from the boy.   
  
_Alright, Roy-boy. You can do this. Think like Maes. What would Maes say? Whatever you say to a fourteen-year-old boy’s soul stuck to a giant suit of armor of course… This is gonna be a shit-show. _

“Alphonse,” he greeted carefully, closing the distance between himself and the suit, seated crosslegged on the floor between a tower of books. Alphonse looked up from the text he was reading.   
  
“Oh. Hi, Colonel Mustang.”   
  
Edward was right. The kid seemed different. His voice, which was usually so cheery and sounded so energetic, was just a flat mumbling. Also, it always seemed so important for Alphonse to greet the Colonel properly with respect. Now, he was already back into the pages of the book he was reading. 

“Are you… reading something useful about the stone?” he tried instead, hoping that would trigger the boy’s talkative side. That didn’t happen. All of a sudden, Al startled violently, slamming the book shut and hiding it behind his back.   
  
“I- no, no. I- that was the wrong book. I was gonna get the one next to it,” Alphonse blurted out, fidgeting around- making sure the book was safely hidden behind him and a couple of the rest of them lying with spine facing him, obscuring their titles.   
  
That was certainly strange… _Wait, did they have porn in that library? Gosh, maybe that would make research slightly more… No. No, no, no! Focus._  
  
“Is anything the matter?” Roy tried instead, shaking himself out of his curious musings. _   
  
_“No,” Alphonse replied way too quickly, desperately starting to bag up the shielded books. “Nothing’s wrong. I’m just tired… or, err… you know. I just need some peace and quiet after the long mission.”   
  
“Your brother said you two had some kind of fight. Is that what’s been bothering you?”   
  
Alphonse visibly paused, his arm still tucked inside his small brown leather bag.  
  
_Maybe, just maybe… He could talk to the colonel about this… No. No, he couldn’t talk to _anyone. _Nobody could know. His brother would hate him if he knew he had these strange… he wouldn’t call them urges- he wasn’t actually sure if he was even able to have those- but _feelings. _Feelings he shouldn’t have towards someone he definitely shouldn’t. _  
  
“You know, for a suit of armor, you’re pretty expressive,” Roy chuckled, leaning lazily on the door frame.   
  
“What?” _What had he expressed? Did he know? How could he know!?  
  
_“It’s your body language. Which, I guess is expected. You don’t really have too many other ways of showing your emotions.”   
  
“I… I guess not. What,” he needed to be careful of what he was saying. One slip up and his life would be even _more _over than it already felt. “…what do you think I’m I portraying right now?”

“Honestly? You look terrified.” 

_Oh. Fuc-freak! _  
  
When Alphonse didn’t answer, instead only kept staring at his book-bag, Roy took it as permission to continue. 

“You know, your brother is pretty worried. He couldn’t even think of any good retorts to my short jokes.”   
  
Alphonse tilted his head towards the colonel for a moment, before lowering his gaze again, clearly guilt-ridden.  
  
“I didn’t mean to hurt him,” he uttered finally. “But he was just pestering me- going _on and on _about how I was acting strange and I just… didn’t want to talk to him about it…”  
  
“He’s not mad, he’s just wo-”  
  
“…I mean, I didn’t hit him _that _hard anyway.”  
  
“…rried. You punched Fullmetal?” 

“I- The bruise on his cheek wasn’t me, that was this… other kid. Russel, his name was. Mine didn’t leave a mark, I don’t think…” 

Roy slowly blinked, trying to digest all of this information. If there was anything in the report about Ed being in a fistfight with some other kid, Roy hadn’t been able to decipher it from the colorful chicken-scratches on the piece of paper on his desk. 

But, that was not what this was about. 

“Listen, Alphonse. I get that this…whatever it is that is bothering you, is hard to talk about. I’m not sure if I’m the right person for you to talk to anyway. But it’s clearly bothering you a lot. I just think you’d maybe feel better if you talked about it.” Hesitant, he got closer to the hulking armor and lay an awkward hand on his shoulder piece.   
  
Alphonse went silent and stayed silent for a long time.   
  
Roy was starting to worry if he had hit some kind of off switch when Alphonse finally met his gaze. 

“How… how does it feel like to be in love?”   
  
That was _not _what Roy had expected. He wasn’t sure just what he was expecting, but this would probably be one of the absolute _last _things. But, he had also been a fourteen-year-old boy with a crush once upon a time, more years ago than he liked to think about, so this should be within his comfort zone. Somewhat. 

“Uh, well… I guess it’s different for everybody but… I guess the first thing I usually feel is a tingling sensation in my stomach.”

“I… I can’t feel that,” Al sulked. Something in his voice had turned more desperate, which only made Roy feel panicked.   
  
_A different strategy, then. _

“Well, that’s not the only thing do. You… you enjoy her company and want to spend more time with her than other people in your life I guess. She’ll make you feel accepted for who you are, hopefully. You… usually find her physically attractive too.” 

Thoughtfully, Alphonse nodded, unfortunately not seeming any more uplifted. 

“Anything else that’s on your mind?” 

Alphonse hesitated. “And… what if the person you… you love… isn’ta _she?” _

Roy wasn’t able to hide his surprise at that. Al visibly recoiled and waved his hands frantically. 

“N-not _me. _I’m talking about… about someone else. Someone I met at the mission.” 

Roy looked at him skeptically. “Uhu,” he murmured. He wasn’t about to point out the ‘I can’t feel tingles in my stomach’ part. If this was how Alphonse needed to handle this, it would have to do for now. “And this someone, is he afraid of these feelings?” 

“Very,” Alphonse answered immediately. 

“Well,” _this was definitely out of Roy’s comfort zone. _“You shouldtell your friend that he probably has a lot of accepting people around him, who’ll love him unconditionally. And that… the people who don’t, don’t matter. It will be hard at times. There will be people who’ll discriminate against him and make him feel small and unimportant, but he’s not. As long as he remembers that, I think he’ll be okay.” 

Roy had Alphonse’s full attention now. In his awe, Alphonse hadn’t realized that he had froze in motion. The last book, the one he’d hid behind his back, was clutched in his left hand, while he was holding the bag in his right. 

The title of the book read clearly “Understanding sexuality”. Roy had seen the book before. It was one of the books recommended in the academy. There was a readlist for those who chose to pursue interrogation techniques and profiling.

Roy nodded faintly towards the book. “That’s a good read. I read it during my time at the academy. You should recommend it to your friend too.” 

If Al could blush, he would have. He quickly stuck the book into the sack. “Y-yeah, I’ll do that. Thank you, colonel. I feel a little bit better now.” 

“Good,” Roy said honestly, aware that this would not be over anytime soon. But it was a start. 

“And Alphonse…” The helmet perked back up. “I’m pretty sure that your friend has a brother who loves him very much and will not think any less of him if he shares what on his mind. I think he will be proud.” 

Alphonse replied with a couple of rapid, shaky nods and wrapped the strap of the bag over his shoulder and got up from the floor.  
  
“I hope so. Thank you. I should probably take brother home now. I think I need to apologize to him for acting irrational. And for punching him.” 

He started walking, and Roy quickly matched his pace to walk beside him, holding a reassuring, much sturdier hand on his shoulder. 

“Don’t worry about him. I’m sure he deserved it.” 

“Al!” a shrieking voice yelled from the open door in Mustang’s office. Edward stood, annoyance and uneasiness rivaling as his main expression.   
  
This time, Roy noticed the faint, yellowing bruise on his cheek. He also had a clear, starting black eye which must have darkened in his time waiting in his office. 

“I’m okay, brother,” Al exclaimed with a prominent lightness in his voice that hadn’t been there before. Roy smiled. 

Edward looked unsure, chewing on his bottom lip as he contemplated about if he believed him or not. 

“Okay, I’m glad. Let’s go home,” Ed decided and walked over to where the two considerably taller figures stood, just outside the office. He shot a questioning glance towards Roy. 

“Yeah, you probably should,” Roy agreed easily. “Fullmetal needs to re-write his report so it’s ready at my desk at nine tomorrow morning.” 

Before Edward could get to physically attacking his superior officer and risk _actually _getting court marshaled for giving Mustang a matching black eye, Al quickly caught him and carried him gingerly under his arm out of the offices, leaving an echo of curses and other profanities behind them as the disappeared out of the HQ.   
  
Roy wasn’t actually expecting the report in the morning. If Alphonse decided to wear his heart on his sleeve and tell Edward about what he was going through, the brothers had a long night ahead of them. 

Good thing they had each other. If it was anyone else, things might be a lot more difficult. It would still be, but a child that had offered up his arm after already having lost a leg to save his little brother from dying, wouldn’t make that sacrifice go to waste. Al would still be Al. And Ed inevitably would keep on being Ed.   
  
Nah. They would be alright. 


End file.
